Techniques for retrieving similar objects are applied in a variety of fields such as industrial design retrieval in design examinations, product image retrieval in design and manufacture, 3-dimensional computer aided design (3D-CAD), and drawing search in component images. The industrial design retrieval in design examinations is described below.
In the design examination, existing designs similar to a design of a verification target are retrieved to determine design similarity. In the industrial design image retrieval in the design examination, an existing design and a text describing the feature of that existing design are stored on a database (DB) with the design tied to the text. The database is then searched with a keyword as a search key representing the feature of the design as the verification target. The existing design similar to the design as the verification target is thus retrieved.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-164503 discloses a three-dimensional model retrieval method as a typical image retrieval application. In accordance with the disclosure, a three-dimensional model similarity retrieval is performed with a two-dimensional image as a search key. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-288690 discloses a cubical image display method displaying an image on a cube in the typical image processing.